Wood from a thousand-year-old olive tree from the artist’s own Mediterranean garden was selected to create Sombrero in 1972. Warm, lustrous and infused with joy, Sombrero owes its golden glow to the Lebanese sun and its inspiration to the artist’s youthful infatuation with an impromptu visitor from Mexico: the daughter of his mother’s cousin. Its lively hues and folkloric feel elicit an immediate emotional response. Eyes flutter, bodies quiver and hearts intertwine. Through this piece, the artist is reaching out to the subject of his ardour, a body that only his touch can bring to life.